The other day, Suzette Hall, founder of Logan’s Legacy 29 dog rescue, received a heartbreaking message from a friend working at a local school. Two severely matted white pups were taking shelter on school grounds, and they seemingly had nowhere to go.

“She and a few other teachers found them huddled together …” Hall told The Dodo. “They were so scared.”

Hall’s heart sank as she swiped through pictures of the duo, noting the love and fear in their eyes as they looked up at the school workers for help. The rescuer agreed to take them in, but car troubles unfortunately delayed her arrival for a few hours.

While waiting for Hall to arrive, school officials banded together to relocate the scared dogs to a safer area. A janitor gently corralled the pups into an unoccupied bathroom, and teachers took turns watching over them, attempting to feed them lunch scraps in the meantime.

“[A teacher] had given them her lunch, but there was broccoli everywhere,” Hall wrote on Facebook. “Apparently, they don’t like broccoli.”

When Hall finally got to the school later that day, she was shocked by the dogs’ physical appearance.

“I honestly could not believe it when I saw them,” Hall wrote. “They had dreadlocks and [were] so dirty … they looked like two little [ragamuffins].”

The pups, later named Maggie and Mack, were scared of their rescuers at first. It took a while to capture them, but Hall refused to give up on the sweet siblings. She eventually backed the pups into a corner and successfully guided them into her humane dog trap.

Hall loaded the pups into her van and headed straight to Camino Pet Hospital, where they would undergo full medical evaluations and much-needed haircuts. After a long day of being rescued, Maggie and Mack were happy to settle into their crate and get some rest on the way to the vet clinic.

“[The] sweet babies were so tired, they fell asleep in my trap,” Hall wrote. “They could finally sleep … they knew they were safe.”

The staff at Camino Pet Hospital welcomed Maggie and Mack with warm hugs and endless praise. The dogs each passed their medical exams with flying colors before undergoing the makeovers they were desperately waiting for.

The team worked carefully as they shaved both Maggie and Mack’s coats off. They weren’t sure how long it’d been since the siblings’ last haircuts, but they could tell right away how relieved the pups felt to shed their painfully matted coats.

Maggie and Mack are now in foster care, still decompressing from their traumatic past. They’re feeling better each day, and Hall is dedicated to giving them the happily-ever-after they deserve.

She hopes to find the duo a perfect forever home soon. Until then, she and her team will continue to shower Maggie and Mack with the love and care they need after everything they’ve gone through.

“Layer by layer, we will put the past behind them,” Hall wrote. “But they [are] finally safe.”